Pre-Departure Thoughts vs Post-Experience Feelings

I recently began to think about how my upcoming experience in Miami might have some similarities to my Buenos Aires experience, but not in the "moving from one city to another" kind of way. Let me explain:

Before I left for Buenos Aires, I had all these images of the city being this bustling metropolis, just like New York City. I told everyone I met how Buenos Aires is supposed to be "The Paris of South America." Just thinking that I used that horrible phrase makes me sick.

I came back from Argentina 14 months later with a completely different view of the city. It was a bustling metropolis, but it also had sprawling slums that no one talked about in the guide books. Once you left the safety of the north part of the metro, you got to see the real Buenos Aires. I came back with a completely different, but more accurate and complete, view of Buenos Aires. A true view of the city that I love so much. Thinking how naive I was before arriving in Argentina is laughable.

Right now, my thoughts about Miami are beaches, palm trees, Little Havana and being "the capital of Latin America." All the stereotypical things that a novice would think; just like the thoughts I had about Buenos Aires before I arrived. I wonder if I'm going to look back in a year at my pre-arrival Miami thoughts with disgust/disbelief like I do at my per-arrival Argentina thoughts?

Did that make sense?